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Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
‘Success' stories behind growth
While Otago may have topped a national economic scoreboard, more needs to be done to spread the word about the South's success, a business leader says. Kiwibank's latest Annual Regional Note, released last week, placed Otago and Southland as the two top performing regions in the country as the South continued to outperform the North. "The further south you go the better the business climate seems," general manager Troy Sutherland said. Ranking a total of 13 regions on a score from 1 to 10, the report summarises seven economic indicators including population growth, retail sales, employment, house price index, house sales, building consents and international tourism electronic card transactions. Otago and Southland both ranked 5, compared with the national average of 4, activity boosted by a bounce back in tourism, the report said. Business South chief executive Mike Collins said the results showed that optimism had returned to the region. "We've been always saying the further south, the more optimistic we are about the future. "I think what we're seeing there is that optimism is turning into action in terms of people spending and people having confidence in making decisions." The region had been "sitting on the cusp" of growth in housing and commercial developments, and decreasing interest rates coupled with more optimism had translated into more transactions around building consents, Mr Collins said. However, there was still a lot of work to do around sharing the region's stories of success with the rest of the country. "Off the back of these kind of announcements, we really need to be coming together across the region and talking about those stories of success and building on those. "I think the rest of the country don't really understand how much opportunity there is down here yet. "There's so much more to show and tell." As a key tourist destination, Otago benefited both in terms of employment and consumer spending, the report said. "As employment growth across most of the country has gone backwards, Otago recorded a massive 8% increase." The region topped the list when it came to retail sales growth, rising about 6.5% in the 12 months to March this year. Otago also recorded the highest year-on-year growth in residential building consents, a rise of nearly 35% in the three months to May this year. Southland, Otago and Canterbury — which recorded "materially shallower declines" in house prices than other areas around the country — were either above or close to their post-Covid highs. House prices in Otago had hovered around their peak levels over the past couple of years, while prices in Southland were 1% higher than their post-Covid surge. International card spending in Otago and Southland rose 1.4% and 5.2% respectively. Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said the results were encouraging for Otago and Southland. "I think there's possibly a little bit more optimism in the region since we've got the go-ahead and resumption of work on the new hospital, which services the whole region. "Also, the upturn in farming, the increase in farming returns both in red meat and dairy products is very helpful to the Otago-Southland economy." Retail development in Dunedin was also growing, and it was easy to see new buildings taking shape around the city. While the "lion's share" of the region's growth was happening in the Queenstown Lakes District, Mr Radich said he was assured about Dunedin's contribution.
Otago Daily Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Positively polarising
Controversy has never done Act New Zealand leader David Seymour any harm in the past, and he does not think it will do him any harm in the future either, he tells political editor Mike Houlahan. As David Seymour settles into a comfy chair in a warm Dunedin hotel, a hundred or so of his bitterest political foes are standing outside in the cold wind decrying the policies of he and the government he is a part of. Polarisation seems to pursue the Act New Zealand leader wherever he goes, and today is no exception: the warm welcome he is about to receive at a Business South meeting is contrary to the frigid reception he would have received had he ventured outside and around the corner to meet the protest rally. "I think, frankly, people want politicians at all levels who are prepared to stand for something and say what they believe in a way that's conciliatory and respectful, and that's what I seek to do," he says, shrugging off the suggestion that Act always needs to be polarising voters to ensure it maintains a high profile. "There is actually a whole lot of change Act is doing that is not getting attention. These Bills have got a lot of attention: the Treaty Principles Bill got a lot of attention, and the Regulatory Standards Bill has actually got attention as a result of the Treaty Principles Bill. "Most of my career I've supported the Regulatory Standards Bill and struggled to get people interested. Now people are interested because of political hype." Few pieces of legislation have excited the general public in recent years as those two Bills — both in the name of Mr Seymour. The first was voted down by Parliament, the second is almost certain to become law despite a procession of opponents to the legislation appearing before Parliament's finance and expenditure committee this week to decry it. "The standards of debate need to rise, and frankly, so many people are saying things about the Regulatory Standards Bill that are just so demonstrably untrue. We need to be able to call a spade a spade," Mr Seymour said. "If you look at our overall agenda, if you look at what Brooke [van Velden] is doing for holidays, the health and safety, labour law, contracting, Covid law, look at Nicole McKee on anti money laundering this week, firearms law, alcohol law. "Karen Chhour is gradually reshaping Oranga Tamariki, Simon Court is doing the resource management law. Andrew Hoggard's playing a role in biosecurity agriculture, with a very safe pair of hands there, even though a few chickens had to die ... having me as the deputy prime minister, and according to most accounts, being a safe pair of hands, I think that helps reassure people that Act is a safe vote." It is always dangerous reading anything in to polls this far out from an election — the day after speaking to the ODT the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll came out, which showed Act steady on 9.1% but overtaken by junior coalition partner NZ First, on 9.8%. But Mr Seymour's contention that Act is no longer beholden to winning his Epsom seat has some credibility. Although the party has failed to poll in the mid-teens, as it did a couple of months prior to the 2023 election, it has equally never looked like dropping down anywhere near the 5% threshold ... and lest we forget, Mr Seymour's deputy Brooke van Velden now has an electorate seat of her own. "I think we've had two polls under 7% in the last five years, and both of those were over 6. Every other poll, and there's probably literally been hundreds in the last five years, have had us at an absolute minimum of 7, some as high as 18," Mr Seymour said. "So, yeah, I think it's fair to say we've been a long way from 5 ... but, you know, you can see Act looking to win more electorate seats at the next election. We're just casting around a bit at the moment." Words which may well send a shiver up the spine of National party management, given that any seat Act may actively tackle is likely to be one that the senior coalition partner holds ... and the example of Ms van Velden in Tamaki shows that Act can walk the talk. "We're not ready to say [where], but we are actively exploring," Mr Seymour said. "Remember, the seats belong to the voters. So the question is, what's best for the voters? People in Tamaki decided that having Brooke represent them would be better than the alternative, and there may be other seats where people decide that." Before we get to that election, there is the not inconsiderable matter of the local body elections to get past. In a novel initiative, Act has decided to officially contest council election for the first time, and the party has been putting out a press release a day in recent weeks promoting its newest recruit. The party has sometimes battled to find suitable candidates in the regions, and fielding in local body elections offers a low-risk environment where contenders for higher honours can test themselves and be tested in as real a simulation of a national election as can be managed. From an initial 700 people interested in standing for Act, the party had whittled the list down to 60. Mr Seymour doubted the election, or otherwise, of any Act-aligned councillors will be an indicator of Act's possible support a year from now, and said the undertaking was an experiment. "Number one, will people vote for a national level brand at local level? And that's what it is, although our candidates are certainly self-generated and local. We didn't pick them, they came to us from their local communities. "The second thing we're testing is what's the appetite for basically three things that Act stands for at the local level. One is being tougher on rates and the role of local government in doing less and spending less. Two is we're pro-car and we want to be able to drive our cars and not be basically forced to pay for modes of transport we don't use and have our carparks taken away. "And three is we believe in equal rights. We oppose the numerous genuflections that councils are making to what we view as a misconception of the Treaty. So it will be a test of the applicability of that brand and those concepts to local government. "But I suspect that next year's election will be about quite different issues and central government where people are more familiar with us." In 2023 — and most of 2022 for that matter — Act campaigned relentlessly, holding hundreds of town hall meetings, many of which Seymour spoke at. Act's 2026 election campaign will have to be different: the party is in government now and the deputy prime minister cannot be in Wanaka or Roxburgh as often as he might like. "The other way is digital media, and we'll do a lot more of that, but I love getting up and talking to people, and it's a great way to test where you're up to with the audience," Mr Seymour said. "And often the mood of the crowd and the responses you get and the questions they ask are a really good way of testing where people are up to." No doubt his friends outside could give him a sense of where some people are up to. "We know who our likely supporters are, and they're much younger than the people that come to the public meetings. I don't know why that is," Mr Seymour continued. "I suspect it's because people with children generally don't go to public meetings. One of the reasons I knew we were on to something in 2020, for the first time ever, I saw people with prams and push chairs at our public meetings. "I thought, that's someone who is making a really big effort ... That's when I realised that people were engaged in politics, and they wanted to engage with us." Freedom of speech upheld despite controversy Act New Zealand proudly proclaims itself as being the party of freedom of speech. There could be few better examples of that than when party deputy leader Brooke van Velden made unwanted history in May by using the "c" word for the first time in parliamentary debate in New Zealand. Few people knew that Ms van Velden was going to quote quite that verbatim from a newspaper column on pay equity law changes which had greatly offended her and other opposition MPs ... but party leader David Seymour did. Knowing that Speaker Gerry Brownlee suspected what was about to happen, Mr Seymour made a point of order to ask that Ms van Velden "be given a full opportunity to respond the way she wants to" — which, eventually, she did. "It was entirely her and her office, and I talked to her about it," Mr Seymour said. "I said, 'well, if you're absolutely sure it's what you want to do, then we of course support you. I think she took a stand against what was really a form of bullying, and I'm very proud of her for doing that." Mr Seymour said that Ms van Velden had thought the column and associated reporting was "disgraceful" and that it was completely in his deputy's character to be prepared to take decisive action to draw a line under those tactics. "I think it was a very impressive piece of politics from her."
Otago Daily Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Fast-track application imminent
Santana Minerals executive director Damian Spring has told a business audience in Cromwell his company is just "a few weeks away" from applying for a fast-tracked resource consent to operate an open pit and underground mine in the hills above the town. More than 100 people attended the Business South event, where Mr Spring said the last of the reports were being finished on what he described as "one of the most intensive and extensive studies ever undertaken on the Dunstan Mountains". "We have spent over $6million on consultants and contractors in order to acquire the studies that we need for that fast track," he said. "This sort of work covers water quality, water quantity, dust, noise, traffic, water ecology, birds, lizards, plants, wetlands, pests, rehabilitation, environmental geochemistry — the list goes on." While the new streamlined consenting process introduced by the coalition government was yet untested, all going to plan, it could give Santana Minerals the go-ahead to mine as early as the end of the year, Mr Spring said. In response to a question from the Otago Daily Times , Mr Spring indicated to the room he was confident Santana Minerals had done what was needed to secure that consent and move the project forward, saying he did not lose any sleep thinking about the alternative. Other questions from the floor revealed apprehension from some in the business community about the impact any mining activity could have on Central Otago's reputation for fine wine and natural vistas, as well as the potential for workforce poaching from the region's in-demand civil construction sector. Hayden Johnston, of Tarras Vineyard, said the mine site was 5km away from his business, which traded off "the beautiful natural environment" around it. "That's where we have a conflict, right? No matter how good you guys are, the mining industry is exploitative." Though Mr Spring was quick to offer the counterview that mining was "extractive" rather than "exploitative", he did not shy away from the reality and the fact it would be a "perception thing" for the local wine and tourism sectors: "It is the nature of mining — we dig up stuff, we change the landform." But he also backed his science. "When we're talking about toxins, the tailings dam, the whole design is about ensuring that whatever residue is left in those tailings stays in those tailings in behind the dam. "We are designing everything in order to understand what the effects are and how to control those effects." Santana Minerals' newest recruit, environment manager Cheryl Low, just four days in the job and fresh from the mines of North Queensland, was one of an arsenal of experts Mr Spring had join him on stage. Ms Low said even in the last decade the industry had changed considerably in its approach. "Mining people would be production, production, production, and the environment was an afterthought. They've now learnt they have to plan for the closing of the mine before they can even start digging." Santana Minerals engagement manager Vicki Blakeborough, charged with finding the 300-odd staff needed at the site, said as many as 900 people had already been in touch. "The interest has just been incredible." That interest had come from people already living in the area who had industry experience or transferable skills as well as from those who called the area home but were working at other mines "around the world", she said. Mr Spring confirmed a construction camp to house 80 people was part of the company's resource application, alongside a caravan park for out-of-town workers with their own mobile homes. He also expected the company to offer transport to and from the mine site from locations within an hour-and-a-half's drive, he said. Business South chief executive Mike Collins urged Santana Minerals to continue having transparent conversations with the community as the mining company moved forward with its plans to prevent an information "vacuum" where misinformation or misunderstanding could spread. "It's all about communicating ... and keeping the dialogue going," he said. With "record-high" gold prices, Mr Spring told the room the latest ballpark revenue figure for the Bendigo site was more than $6.4 billion over nine years. However, Santana Minerals geology manager Alex Nichol said drilling was ongoing at four sites in the northern part of the Rise and Shine deposit with the aim to grow that gold resource further.
Otago Daily Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Dunedin-Auckland flights boost welcomed
A boost in seats to flights between Auckland and Dunedin will help stimulate spending across the city in time for key events, an industry leader says. Air New Zealand announced yesterday its Auckland-Dunedin route was among three southern connections that would receive a boost in capacity later this year. Between June 28 and October 25, select services across the three routes would operate using the larger Airbus A321, adding more seats to the network at a time of strong seasonal demand, it said. A total of 46 existing flights on the Auckland-Dunedin route would be upgauged from the Airbus A320 to the A321, adding a total of 2100 new seats. This would support key student movement dates and special events, including the All Blacks' game in Dunedin in July and the Big Sing finale in August. The Auckland-Christchurch and Auckland-Queenstown routes comparatively would receive a combined total of 570 upgauged flights — or approximately 34,000 new seats. Chief commercial officer Jeremy O'Brien said the airline was thrilled to be able to connect more customers over the winter season. "Whether they're heading back to university, to a special event, or to the slopes this winter, these seats will mean more choice and opportunity to fly and more flexibility to plan travel around the moments that matter," Mr O'Brien said. "This isn't just about adding flights, it's about supporting our regions." Business South chief executive Mike Collins said the changes were "definitely positive". "We've been advocating to Air New Zealand on behalf of business for additional capacity, so any additional seating that is going to provide some more volume to the business community is something we've seen as favourable." Aligning the boost in capacity with key events would be advantageous to businesses in the city as it would stimulate spending on accommodation and hospitality. He was surprised Air New Zealand had made a change in the short term, but he believed it was a sign the airline was listening to and monitoring the demand for services in the region, Mr Collins said. "There's a lot of investment going on in Dunedin at the moment and a lot of activity. "So if that's flowing through to contractors coming into town and on flights and a lot more passenger travel between Dunedin and Auckland, that wouldn't surprise me, because there is quite a lot of activity going on in the city ... from an investment perspective."
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Could Sydney-style water taxis come to Portsmouth?
For those living near harbours in the South of England, the idea of calling a water taxi to get to work or home from a night out could soon be a idea was the subject of a summit last week involving politicians, ferry providers, business leaders and experts in marine event at the Portsmouth's historic dockyard heard the system could work on an "on-demand" basis, like Uber, or on a scheduled timetable, and could be key to helping alleviate some of the South's traffic ferry operators warned that public subsidies would be needed to get services off the ground and encourage people out of their car. The event was organised by Dame Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport, who said she wanted to hear the "art of the possible" and mimic cities like Sydney in Australia, which use water taxis for commuting and afterwards she said: "There's a definite enthusiasm to get things up and running to make the most of the water we have here. Everybody in one room helped see what the opportunities and obstacles are." Supporters of the idea included the operators of Gunwharf Quays, Hampshire chamber of commerce and Business South who said it could help encourage economic growth. But some of ferry operators at the summit said it was a challenge to change mindsets, to get people onto boats and out of cars, particularly outside of the summer months. The operator of the overnight ferry connecting Portsmouth and Gosport stopped sailings in February due to a lack of demand. Many in the industry said a change in government policy was needed are government grants to support public transport - like bus service improvement plans (BSIP) and the move back to public ownership for trains - but no such financial support exists in England for the maritime Rayment, owner of Blue Funnel Cruises, said: "Scottish ferries are subsidised, the ferries which cross Sydney harbour get financial support and there's been grants to the Thames clippers in London, but down here on the South Coast, there's nothing we can apply for, that's frustrating."Many in the room said public subsidies were needed while the service was in its infancy as the "passengers won't come instantly".In response, Caroline Dinenage said political backing was key as well as business support. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
